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We get the pleasure of working with some amazing artists/illustrators here at MAKE. One of them is James Provost. James did the illos for the “Lunchbox Laser” and “Marble Adder” projects in Volume 20, and the “CNC For Under $800″ piece in Volume 21. He also did the wonderful illustrated version of the Maker’s Bill of Rights.

Here’s a video James did to show how Mechanum wheels work. On his blog (which is a fun read, BTW), he describes his inspiration:

While [MythBusters] one day, I noticed something weird about their forklift — it moved sideways. It didn’t just turn on a dime, but actually moved perpendicular to the direction of the wheels. Upon closer inspection, they looked more like worm gears than wheels. The answer was just a Google away: The MythBusters’ forklift is equipped with Mecanum Wheels, also known as Omni Wheels or Ilon Wheels. These wheels work by rotating independently, depending on the desired direction of travel.

I had an idea that this might make for an interesting motion graphic (above), since still images really don’t do this technology justice. So I tried it out (what’s the worst that can happen?)

Gareth Branwyn is a freelancer writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor for Boing Boing and WINK Books. And he has a new best-of writing collection and “lazy man’s memoir,” called Borg Like Me.

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Don’t know about you, but 0:17 – 0:24 seemed to work pretty well for me. I mean, they’re wheels, they turn. The trick is the 45* rollers allow side-to-side movement, and that section of the video shows what combinations of wheel rotations will result in movement of the forklift in certain directions.

japroach

sorry, you are right.

There was too much focus on the top left image of the wheel, which is not required for the explanation.

Travis Deyle

The commercial forklifts using mecanum wheels (sometimes also called Swedish wheels) are called AirTrax: